L-R Amy Keating, Karen Robinson (photo by Jeremy Mimnagh)
Why?
by Jason Booker
Partway through the English language premiere of Wadji Mouawad’s Pacamambo, after having heard the young protagonist and her grandmother speak in rapturous tones about “the road to Pacamambo” for what felt like the tenth or twelfth time, it occurred to me that this was not a piece of theatre set before the audience. It was a travel pitch for a place where people ignore racial lines to become one, escaping into some hippy-dippy heaven, that sounded so much more appealing than the seats in these cramped quarters. And when the seating is set up as a runway – half the audience facing the other with actors wedged into a narrow space in between – it became apparent there were a few audience members with similar thoughts.
Welcome to the Canadian Rep Theatre, founded in the fallout of Ken Gass’s firing from Factory Theatre. This is their inauspicious debut.
